partsofspeaking

My teeth and mouth are quite different now, which is good, but the experience has been frustrating because of almost weekly breaks in the brackets, especially the lower ones.  They, and the wires, are broken now, but I can't get to the dentist til Wednesday.  GRRRR.  Would I do it again?  Thankfully, we can't redo the past  It is nice to have straight front teeth.

Hubby and I started watching the BBC program Land Girls on NetFlix, which lends itself to binge watching.  The show is the television equivalent of potato chips.  You can't watch just one, but it is as intellectually satisfying as chips are nutritional.  It's quite the soap opera, with cliff hangers, one-dimensional characters (especially the villains), artificial conflict, and problems and characters that go away when the plot no longer needs them.  The Americans are the particular bad guys, despite the historical proof that the Americans were pretty good to the British locals.  The story between the lord of the manor and the land girl with an Italian background was about stupid.  But I do like the scenery and periodness (although their clothes look way too good considering what the Brits had been through by then and the land girls hardly ever actually work), and I like some of the characters. A friend's mother, they found out later in life, was a land g...

I am no fan of Trump, but when a supposed moderator asks him in a supposedly real debate (i.e., public forum) if he is a cartoon villain character idea of a president . . . Shame on you, CNBC.

Today is celebrated as Reformation Day in some churches, and of course "A Mighty Fortress is Our God" will be sung, hopefully with an organ with all the stops pulled out.  To reflect on this (and because I am not in church this morning due to traveling), I will write a reflection/paraphrase of this great song, not because it is needed, but because it helps me and perhaps someone else see the deep doctrine of it.  A mighty fortress is our God, a bulwark never failing; Our helper He, amid the flood of mortal ills prevailing: For still our ancient foe doth seek to work us woe; His craft and power are great, and, armed with cruel hate, On earth is not his equal. Our God is a mighty fortress, a never-failing defense. He is our helper through the flood of sin and death that seems to prevail in this world. Because Satan still seeks to do evil to us; His craft, power, and hate used against us are great,  and no human has the power that Satan does. Did we in our ow...

I am traveling today to a conference, and it will be combined with seeing family.  Enough said on this point.  But on the short flight to where I have a layover, I sat in front of a quintessential Southern woman.  I say that ironically, because there is no such thing, but she was loud, brassy, cursed a bit, and got along great with her seatmates.  I know she annoyed the other passengers on the packed-in flight, but other than the constant use of God's "name in vain," I found her amusing.  I learned all about her life, her boyfriend, her ex-husband, her job, her trip, her child.  So did the rest of the flight, I think.  She was sort of like Paula Deen in looks, voice, and personality (which shows I am not a fan). It occurred to me that God never called anyone to be a curmudgeon, which is easy to be at times.   

I am wading in and might get in trouble, but here goes. Joe Biden said he would not run for president today, and it was one of his finer moments.  For a man who has made a career out of goofy and embarrassing gaffes, he is coming across with gravitas since his son passed away.  I respect him more now.  We are at least spared the possibility of his running against Donald Trump. Then we find out today that the plurality of Republicans think Donald Trump will win the GOP nomination.  What is going on?  How can this narcissistic, egoistic, buffoonish,  sexist loud mouth have convinced that many conservatives that he should be their candidate for the leader of the free world?  Who are these people?  Can they not see this guy's propensity to spout off without knowledge, his inability to accept responsibility, and his crassness? Being against the "political class" is no excuse for stupidity.

Apparently some professor somewhere assigned a paper on group dynamics in Twelve Angry Men."  This blog is getting bombarded with hits for that article.  I hope these professors use Turnitin! If you come here, please buy my books: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=Barbara+G.+Tucker and http://www.amazon.com/Unexpected-Christmas-Visitors-Barbara-Graham/dp/1475107471/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1445116531&sr=8-1&keywords=Barbara+Graham+Tucker My books are good.  Sorry, it's just true.  They are better than a lot of stuff out there.   This afternoon I went to the Goodlet Family Fall Festival in Rock Spring, GA.  Many thanks to Chris Jemison who got the local authors together, to the Goodlet family for doing this festival, which supports breast cancer research, and all the helpers.